The major insurers of local councils handle about 30,000 highway claims each year at a cost of around £40 million. What we don’t have information on is the number and costs of the many thousands of claims that are handled in-house by the authorities themselves. This will add significantly to these figures. Interview with Colette Dark, an independent insurance risk management expert at KWD Associates

The major insurers of local councils handle about 30,000 highway claims each year at a cost of around £40 million. What we don’t have information on is the number and costs of the many thousands of claims that are handled in-house by the authorities themselves. This will add significantly to these figures. This podcast focuses specifically on the issues associated with risk ownership when outsourcing services. Interview with Colette Dark, an independent insurance risk management expert at KWD Associates

Data as national infrastructure - it is vitally important that we consider data as national infrastructure, just like our physical infrastructure. The quality and availability of data is as important for capacity planning, routing and resilience as it is for road and rail networks. The interfaces between local and national data are as vital as they are for transport links. This podcast features an interview with Nic Cary, Head of Digital Transformation at the Department for Transport and Teresa Jolley, an independent consultant.

The Code of Practice Well-managed Highway Infrastructure was recently published and outlines a risk-based approach. This podcast features an interview with Steven Conway, a lawyer specialising in claims against highway authorities and someone who provide legal expertise into the review of the Code.

CIHT Council advises on the strategic and professional direction of the Institution. They also have the power to elect and remove the Board of Trustees. Council Members find serving on Council a rewarding and enjoyable experience, and a great opportunity to network with fellow professionals. This short podcast includes interviews with Sheila Holden, Ed Downer and Sarah Simpson.

Our infrastructure – both physical and digital – faces a range of threats from terrorism, to state and commercial espionage, hacktivism to criminality. The question is how do we guard against these threats? For those involved in the transport sector this means adopting a ‘security-minded approach'. Podcast includes interviews with Alex Luck, Hugh Boyes and Gary Heward who all work on security projects or infrastructure projects requiring security-mindedness.This episode starts with physical security of transport systems and the public realm. Then goes on to explore issues and the dangers with smart cities and data aggregation, and includes the Engineering Council's six new security principles for all engineers. Finally it looks at security mindedness and asset management aspects and PAS1192-5 work for BIM.

Is the world becoming more uncertain? What are the implications for transport from the revolution in technology? How will people travel and connect in the future – will they do this in person or virtually? Oil prices have drastically fallen, what might happen to energy prices in the future? And how should we plan the future of our transport system based on these uncertainties. To discuss this with Justin Ward is Professor Glenn Lyons who has been leading the CIHT FUTURES project looking at just these issues.

Jeff Paniati's insight into transport in the United States is particularly valuable. He was Executive Director of the Federal Highways, where he was responsible for 2,900 employees in 65 offices nationwide and an annual operating budget of $400 million and is now Executive Director and CEO at the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE).He led the development and implementation of the highway provisions in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) surface transportation program, including the transformative move to a performance-based federal-aid highway programme. At the start of 2016 the Fixing America’s Surface Transport (FAST) Act was introduced that gave five year funding certainty. He also reflects on how cities in the United States are changing and also competing for a prize of $40 million fund under the Smart City Challenge. Listen to the insights Jeff provides to Justin Ward on both the challenges and opportunities the US is addressing in terms of its transport system.

Dr Sue Sharland started her career as a scientist, has a background in R&D, and was Chief Executive of TRL for 12 years. Sue is now non-Executive Director/Trustee of a number of public, private and not-for-profit organisations including the Transport Systems Catapult. As President of CIHT from 2015/16, Dr Sharland chose ‘Intelligent Transport in a Connected World’ as the theme for her year. To learn about all things smart – cities, infrastructure, materials, vehicles, skills - listen to the experience and insights that Sue provides to Justin Ward.

One week before Volvo Cars announced trials of autonomous vehicles in London a panel of experts agreed the UK was a world leader in supporting development of this technology. Insight into this fast moving and fascinating development for the transport sector was provided by: Iain Forbes, Head of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles; Professor Nick Reed from TRL involved with some of the trials in the UK; and Anders Eugensson, Volvo Cars Director of Governmental Affairs. Covering questions of regulatory environments, what road administrations need to do, how mapping will be crucial for the implementation and details of trials underway in the UK; listen to the panel of experts discussing all this and more with Justin Ward from CIHT.